One important part of this hypothesis is the emphasis on receptive skill, mainly listening. People use their listening skill to receive and understand input.
Their ability to produce or speak emerges much later when the learners feel ready.
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5. The Affective Filter Hypothesis
This main concern of this hypothesis is how acquisition is influenced by people‘s affective factors. There is a language acquisition device LAD in the
brain whose function is processing input to become competence. However, there is an affective filter between the coming input and LAD. What this filter does is
‗filter‘ the input and prevent the receiver from acquiring the language, as illustrated on Figure 2.3.
Figure 2.3 How Affective Filter Influences Input and Acquisition
What make a person‘s affective filter are three affective factors: motivation, self-confidence, and anxiety. When a person has low motivation, low self-
confidence, and high anxiety, the affective filter is strong. Thus, the person‘s language acquisition device will receive the least input. In order to successfully
receive the input and acquire the language, the person needs to have optimal attitudes towards the input. Optimal attitudes consist of high motivation, high self-
confidence, and low anxiety. To simplify: optimal attitudes will weaken the affective filter, which will allow more input to be received. This will lead to a
successful acquisition.
31
30
Ibid., pp. 21 – 22.
31
Ibid., pp. 30 – 32.
Input LAD
Acquired competence
Filter
From what is known about language acquisition in the explanations above, it can be concluded that 1 acquisition is more important than learning, 2 people
acquire language by receiving a comprehensible input and with optimal attitudes, and 3 the inputs can be provided primarily by listening to other people‘s speech,
either directly or through media like television programs, songs, movies, etc. This section will briefly discuss how other factors can affect language
acquisition. There are four factors, namely language teaching, exposure, age, and acculturation.
a Language teaching in the classroom can help acquisition as long as
comprehensible input is provided and the condition allows optimal attitudes. b
Exposure does not necessarily mean acquisition. Trying to expose oneself to a language does not guarantee the person acquisition if the input is not
comprehensible. It should be noted, however, that the higher amount of exposure grants more chance of comprehensible input to be available.
c The younger is not always the better. Children seem to acquire faster than
adults because the inputs that they receive are relatively simpler, hence more comprehensible.
d Acculturation may allow people to adapt to the language community and get
comprehensible input. A good relationship between the learner and the community may also provide low affective filter.
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C. Movie-watching Activity
1. General Views on Movies
According to Barsam and Monahan, a movie is a story, captured in a set of celluloid stripsfilms, which are shown on a screen with certain speed to give the
impression of moving.
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Lately a lot of moviemakers have been shooting their movies digitally, but the main characteristic of movies remains the same; a movie
or a film is a ‗motion picture‘. Movies have been a big part of human life. Barsam
32
Ibid., pp. 32 – 49.
33
Richard Barsam and Dave Monahan, Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film, New York: W.W. Norton Company, 2010, 3
rd
edition, pp. 2 – 3.
